Back Through the Looking Glass
by Sage of Angst
Summary: On a whim through an offer from a strange river spirit, Chihiro journeys back to the World of Spirits--but it seems nothing is the same now. Can the two new friends right what's been wronged, or is there more powerful magic at work?


_Author's Notes_: I feel some sort of introduction is in order, so if you're patient enough to peruse this story, I'll introduce myself.  I'm sage, and this happens to be my first foray into the "Spirited Away" area. I've written a lot of fics for Slayers and Dragonball Z as well as a few non-anime fandoms, but this is the first for this particular anime-movie. I hope I can do justice to it and hope you enjoy. Without further ado, the first chapter!

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_Back Through the Looking Glass   
Chapter One: Vision of a Goddess_

   She was a normal ten-year-old girl by all accounts, downright boring if you wanted to get technical. Plain brown hair swept back into a high pony-tail, deep black eyes that seemed to stretch for the thousand-fathoms she was named for, and a short stocky build, nothing truly remarkable whatsoever. Except she wasn't plain, she wasn't normal, and her life was anything _but_ boring lately.

   "Just…be sure to be back before lunch, alright sweetie?" Chihiro Ogino waved her mother off as she skipped away from their campsite, eager to explore the mysteries the surrounding forest was sure to hold. "Keep along the bank. Oh—and don't get too dirty!" The woman's warning yells still reached her even as she darted into the woods, "The forest patrol is strict about bathing in the river—we'll swim when we get to the lake!" But the child was no longer listening, lost from sight.

   "She'll be fine," her father reminded his worried wife, "I'm sure she can handle herself perfectly well for a few hours, hon." Reluctantly she agreed, and the two went back to setting up their campsite. They'd been living in their new house for over a month now, and the school year was fast approaching, prompting the Ogino family to make a final foray into the "wilderness" before it was back to the grindstone for their young daughter.

   The Great Forest Park, aptly named, was the perfect place to get away from civilization for a few days and was frequented by all manner of people who simply needed a break. So the family of three had packed up and driven the short distance to the forested lands, rented a site, and here they were.

   Chihiro felt she'd done well to get away from her parents now, before they made her help them set up the tent or prepare lunch. No, she had much better ideas of how best to use her time in the woods, and they had nothing to do with food preparation or site maintenance. She gingerly picked her way down the well-worn path she was currently traveling as a recent storm had blown limbs and other debris onto the walkway, blocking her every now and then. She'd sidestep and then retake her place, plodding forward at a leisurely pace, breathing in deep the scent of the surrounding forest. So beautiful and peaceful! 

   Peaceful…yes, one whole month had passed, and she'd come to have a new appreciation for peace: she cherished it when she had it now, for who knew when things could be turned upside down, perceptions twisted all around? _She_ knew how it felt to have that happen, and anyone who'd been through what she'd been through wouldn't argue. To think it had really only been four weeks…

   In the time since she'd returned from her adventure, she'd become surprisingly more bold, more congenial, attracting even a few friends as well as gaining a neighborhood reputation as, "That sweet little Ogino girl," by the adults. School would be starting soon, in only another few weeks, but she wasn't nervous anymore—her new friends would be there, probably in her same class. Through them she'd make more friends, she'd get distracted with schoolwork and—dare she hope—her social life, and this summer would fade from memory, replaced by the promise of _next_ summer, which in turn would be replaced by the next, and so on. Frowning, she noted that she didn't _want_ to forget…

   Chihiro pushed her thoughts away and made an abrupt turn off the beaten path down a steep embankment to her left, slipping down halfway over the wet leaves and landing with a thump on the soft ground below. She stood quickly and brushed herself off, grateful she had been able to at least partially obey her mother and keep clean. Looking up, she took in now the full beauty of the river, unappreciated from the cliff above.

   She'd landed at a calm bend in the river, where the water was almost completely still, barely carrying along the occasional leaf in its warm embrace. The sun filtered down through the trees and dappled the surface, and Chihiro smiled. She eagerly slipped off first one shoe, then the next, and stuffed her socks snugly inside them, tossing her pack to the side with them. Ooh, that water, so inviting, and she _was_ just the tiniest bit warm after her hike. Swim? Oh no, she wouldn't swim, the rangers forbade it! But they never said anything about wading, did they? Of course not. She took one tentative step in, then walked forward with confidence.

   Why such a lovely river was off limits to tourists was beyond her—it was so clean and the cool water whirling over her toes invigorated the young girl. The bottom was sandy and soft, no sharp rocks jutting out dangerously or anything, with only the occasional large stone that seemed perfect for resting one's weary body on. Chihiro took delight in trying to run through the water, stirring up sandy clouds in her wake and making quite a bit of noise as she laughed at the sights. So much noise, that it was only after ten minutes of play did she finally realize she was being watched. And this was only because her watcher spoke out to her:

   "You better be quiet—there's a couple of humans not far downstream, and they'll hear you if you keep that up!" a cheerful voice warned lightly from behind her, and Chihiro whipped around immediately, eyes searching fearfully for the source of the voice. Apparently wanting to be found out, the voice aided her, calling out, "Here! Up here!" Her gaze traveled slowly up to a small figure perched atop one of the larger boulders along the river's western shore: a girl, looking not much older than Chihiro, with gleaming golden locks pulled up into a tight bun.

   "Ah!" Chihiro yelped involuntarily, more from surprise than anything else, and gave a small jump backwards, nearly falling into the water. Her arms waved frantically as she tried to keep her balance, and this sight sent the stranger into peals of laughter. As soon as she'd righted herself, Chihiro granted herself the right to glare and shouted with feigned anger, "Hey, that wasn't funny! You surprised me!"

   The girl calmed herself quickly and leaned forward to get a better look at this creature below her. "Hehee, sorry 'bout that—but you _were_ making too much noise. Those humans could've heard you at any moment and come looking!"

   "Wha—?" Chihiro blinked, confused. "…Humans?"

   "Uh huh," the girl nodded brightly, blond hair glinting in the sunlight, and pointed downstream to emphasize her point. "A man and a woman, they're camping along my eastern bank a few hundred yards away." She turned her gaze back to Chihiro and smiled, lowering her arm, then slid off the rock into the water with a _plop_. Taking no effort to make her way through the knee-deep water at all, she was soon a mere few feet from Chichiro, bright green eyes running gleefully up and down her body as if studying her. She encircled her a few times, unnerving Chihiro a bit to say the least, then stopped once more in front of her and shoved a hand forward in greeting.

   "Miyozeino Kawa!" Chihiro blinked at the girl, looked down at the hand waiting to be shaken, then back up. "Miyozeino Kawa," she spoke again a bit more slowly, drawing out the syllables, thinking perhaps she hadn't been heard the first time, "…and you?"

   Ah, that was her name! Chihiro wanted to bow repeatedly in apology, instead scrambling out her own name to cover up the mistake, "Ah—sorry! Chihiro! Chihiro Ogino." She hastily shook the proffered hand, smiling broadly all the while.

   The girl named Miyozeino returned the smile now, waving off the apology, and turned thoughtful, a finger resting on her chin. "…Hmm, Chihiro, eh? I'm not sure I know that one…Are you from the North?"

   "Huh? Oh, no, my family just moved here a few weeks ago, we live in town," she explained to her new friend. "We're actually here in vacation."

   The girl blanked, eyebrows furrowing. "…_town_?…_Family_? Wha—I…" She shook her head to clear her thoughts, then gripped Chihiro roughly by the shoulders, staring deep into her dark eyes, confused. "Wait—are you not…are you not a River Spirit?"

   A bit startled when the girl had gripped her so suddenly, Chihiro's eyes widened in immense surprise at the question posed her by this…Miyozeino. Both girls jumped back a bit, hands coming to their mouths in shock, choking out simultaneously, "You—you're a—!"

   They leaned forward again, each wanting to get a good look at this strange girl before her. They extended a single finger and connected, receiving a small shock which made them both yelp in surprise and pull back again. Silence followed for the next few minutes, and it was finally the strange blonde girl who spoke, voicing the question they both knew would have to be asked.

   "You're saying…you're _not_ a river spirit? You're…_human_?!" The pitch of her voice rose a bit, indicating just how ludicrous and unbelievable the notion was. After all, Miyozeino reasoned, the spirits of the water are almost _never_ mistaken in recognizing one another…so, how…? She slapped a hand to her forehead and groaned when Chihiro hesitantly nodded, confirming her fears. "Great," she mumbled under her breath, "Just revealed myself to a human…can't believe it…" She trailed off into murmurs that Chihiro couldn't catch.

   "Then, does that mean, that you _are_ a river spirit?" Chihiro began hopefully, and the girl looked up from her moping, face washed over with disappointment, then nodded slowly. Her face brightened in recognition—then it _hadn't_ been a dream! Yes, she'd admit, though she wanted so badly to believe her adventures in the realm of spirits had been real and had truly happened, she was beginning to think that perhaps they hadn't occurred at all. Perhaps, like Alice, she'd merely fallen asleep and dreamt her whole adventure through that Wonderland. Everyone, Lin, Kamaji, Haku, even Yubaba…they'd all been fantastic characters in an even more fantastic dreamland. But…but if this girl truly was a river spirit—and from the dejected tone in her voice, she didn't doubt she was telling the truth—then it _was_ real, for Haku had been a river spirit as well, and if they existed, then that mean _he_ existed too!

   Miyozeino paused her self-berating to gauge the human's reaction to the revelation that she was what she'd just said she was. This girl, this _Chihiro_, didn't appear all that surprised or shocked, but rather…relieved. Like she'd been hoping she'd say she was a river spirit. Straightening back up, she stared her in the face, brows pulled together as she studied her more closely. "Chihiro…was it?" The human nodded, yet this only made her frown more. It made no _sense_…she'd never been wrong before, never on something like _this_. Oh sure, she'd mistaken other spirits for river spirits before—she recalled with a shudder the incident with an old swamp spirit who'd gotten lost and flowed her way one summer's afternoon—but never before had she mistaken a _human_ for a spirit.

   It was practically an impossible mistake to make in the first place. For one thing, the creatures had an abominable smell that members of the upper realm could detect a mile away, so powerful was the stench. Yet Chihiro didn't seem to have any odor about her at all…but rather… She gave an audible sniff and encircled her as she'd done upon first meeting Chihiro, startling the poor girl even more. "Eh…what're…what're you doing…?"

   Miyozeino stood straight again, arms crossed firmly over her chest, but her expression was just slightly softer than before, as if she were a child who'd just had a cruel joke played on her. "But…you _can't_ be human!"

   Chihiro blanked. "I…can't?"

   Frustrated, she returned, "No, you can't! Because…because for one thing you don't _smell_ like one!" Her hands fell and rested on her hips, and had the two been on dry land she would've surely been tapping her foot angrily. "You don't _smell_ like a human…"

   "Then what…_do_ I smell like?" she wondered aloud, not really expecting an answer.

   "Well…you smell like…" Another great sniff, "Like…like a raging cataract! Like the spray from a fresh spring crashing off of stones as old as time and smooth as the skin of a lake…like…" She faltered here, hesitant to admit it, "Like a river…" With lightning celerity she took Chihiro's hands in her own, begging her, "Tell me—_how_ can you smell of these things, and not be _one_?! No human can give off such a fresh scent, such a…clean scent, it is reserved for those who have the honor of caring for the rivers!"

   Chihiro's eyes fell a bit and, though she was certain she'd done nothing wrong and could offer no suitable reply to this, she spoke softly, "I'm…sorry…" It was apparent this girl thought by simply smelling a certain way she'd intruded upon an elite group of beings, and was certainly not fit to smell so. Her hands dropped away, and she turned her gaze downward, ashamed. 

   Suddenly, a though shot through her mind…why _would_ she carry the scent of a river spirit if she herself was not one? Perhaps for no reason other than the fact that she'd spent no short amount of time with one…though it _was_ a month ago, but who knew? Her eyes brightened, and she looked Miyozeino full in the face again. "But I—I think I know why!" It was now _she_ who gripped the spirit by the shoulders. "I am human, yes, but I lived in the Spirit World for a while, I came back only a month ago!"

   "Y-you went to the Majou no Sekai?" she breathed, shock evident, and Chihiro nodded curtly. "A human…and you _survived_? But then…the scent…?"

   "Maybe…maybe it's from Haku," she mused aloud. "He was a river spirit—could I have gotten it from him?" 

   The girl thought for a moment, mentally shrugging. Whoever this 'Haku' person was, if he was a river spirit as Chihiro claimed, it was _possible_ some of her kind's distinct aroma rubbed off on her in the time she'd spent with him. Possible, but not normally probable. However, it proved the only logical reasoning behind the mistaken identity. "I…I guess that might be why…" She gave a low laugh. Here she was, a respectable river spirit of 1,563 years holding a conversation with a human girl not 1/1000 of her age on the topic of her scent. It was positively laughable!

   "Um…Miyozeino?" Her head snapped to attention, and she realized she must've been staring into space for a few moments. Chihiro smiled at catching the spirit off guard. "You know Haku, then?"

   "Haku?" She scanned her mind again…in all her years, the name didn't ring even the faintest of bells, and she shook her head. "No…no I don't think I do, which is kinda strange. I'd think I'd at least know the guy's _name_…ah—you can call me Zei, too…I guess since I've already revealed myself, there's no use in staying strangers, eh?"

   Chihiro's grin widened brightly, "Right, Zei!" She turned quickly and spotted a large smooth rock behind her, and gently lowered herself onto it in a more comfortable position, reasoning offhandedly why the spirit might not remember Haku. "It's probably because he's been working at the bath-house for so long…maybe?"

   Zei's eyes widened a bit in interest, and she joined the human on the rock, sitting cross-legged across from her. "The bath-house, huh? That wouldn't happen to be the famous Aburaya of Yubaba, would it?" A nod, and she gave a low whistle. "Wow…your Haku gets to work at the _Aburaya_? That's a top notch job!" She mentally wondered what had a river spirit working in a bath-house—even one as reputable as the Aburaya—shouldn't he be tending his own banks?

   "Yeah…why? Is it that nice a place? I never noticed really…I guess 'cause I didn't get too much time off!" Chihiro laughed embarrassedly, face turning a faint pink tinge. Zei's face whipped up to meet her, eyes wide. "Huh—what?"

   "Y-you worked…in the _ABURAYA_?!" Chihiro shrank away a bit at the shout. "A _human_?! Yubaba gave a human work in her bath-house? But—but—even _gods_ have a hard time getting jobs there!"

   Giggling a bit at the memory of the circumstances surrounding how _she_'d asked for a job, she retorted, "Well, all I had to do was ask." She neglected to mention the existence of a sacred oath forcing the old witch to give a job to anyone who came seeking one. Shrugging it off, she added, "And it wasn't exactly the best work you could ask for." She ticked off some of the more colorful customers on her fingers, "We had stink spirits, Kaonashi, some I couldn't even name…and Yubaba wasn't gaining any favor as a nice boss…" And yet, even through all that, she still had the best time there, hadn't she? Sighing, she lay back onto the rock, eyes half-closed. "…I wanna go back…"

   The blond spirit looked upon the child before her in a new light now, head cocked to the side as she surveyed her. She was human, yes, but perhaps more than that. She'd been to the World of Spirits and back, crossed a boundary humans weren't supposed to cross—not while they were alive anyway. A new aura protected her now, one which kept the scent of a strange river spirit clinging to her, holding her to that realm…she was human, and yet she wasn't. In a move that shocked both parties, Zei piped up suddenly.

   "I'll take you, Chihiro-san."

   Her melodic voice hung in the air, her words having struck a chord in the girl, and she shot back up, dark eyes wide and expectant. "You—what?!"

   Unsure of the reason she'd spoken up herself, she clarified the offer. "I will take you back to the Majou no Sekai, if you wish Chihiro-san, but—" She held up a finger, "Only if you promise to tell me how you came to get there in the first place?" Her eyes fell, a bit embarrassed, and she continued, "I…I've never really been, but I know the way well enough—we all do. Just, humans forget it when they grow up…" She looked up again, eyes bright. "Will you tell me, will you please? I want to hear your adventure!"

   Shocked into silence for a few moments, Chihiro finally managed the strength to nod. Had she been in full use of her mental faculties, she might have realized that her parents might miss her if she went wandering back to the spirit world suddenly, or the fact that she might not even be physically able to return. 

   She'd forgotten in the excitement of the moment the few times she'd actually tried going back, darting through the dark tunnel at the end of the weed-overgrown back road. Every time she'd attempted, she'd simply wind up running back out, though she hadn't turned around at all—it was as if the tunnel was both the entrance and exit at the same time!

   This dismaying thought, however, failed to enter her mind, and before she knew it, she plunged into her tale, Zei leaning in, listening attentively with wide bright eyes.

   "Well, it started a couple of months ago, when my mom and dad moved here for Dad's work…"

_fin chapter one_

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_End Notes_: Well, there it is, the end of the first chapter. I'm trying to lay base characterizations for different characters, including fleshing out how Chihiro would be changed in the weeks and months immediately following her little adventure. This will, of course, be an eventual romance (note the stressing of eventual—she's just ten, for goodness sake!) between Haku and Chihiro. That will come much later though. I don't want this to be like almost every other _Spirited Away_ fic out there, where we suddenly are shot seven or eight years into the future where it's appropriate for her to start a relationship with a guy she hasn't seen in years but for some strange reason has been haunting her dreams for that long or some other such nonsense. Development of friendship and caring first, then romance. Here's hoping I can do it!—sage


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